Protecting the United States of America's legacy as stated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, our Bill of Rights, and the correspondence of our Founding Fathers

I want to know why the term ‘Militia’ in the 2nd Amendment of our United States Constitution has become a dirty word in our culture and politics. It is because of the 2nd Amendment that the Japanese Army refused to invade the Continental United States during World War II. The Japanese Army was terrified that every home and dwelling would be bristling with guns to protect our country in a time of war. And they couldn’t have been more correct in their assessment. The State Militias were mobilized during WW I and WW II to protect our Homeland while our young and brave soldiers, sailors, and airmen carried the war to our enemies’ very shores and boarders.

“The reserve militia or unorganized militia, also created by the Militia Act of 1903 which presently consist of every able-bodied man of at least 17 and under 45 years of age who are not members of the National Guard or Naval Militia.(that is, anyone who would be eligible for a draft). Former members of the armed forces up to age 65 are also considered part of the “unorganized militia” per Sec 313 Title 32 of the US Code.”

However, the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, provides for an unorganized militia of every able-bodied man and woman to be ready to defend the Homeland against any threat both domestic and foreign. This Amendment predates, and thus supersedes, all Acts of Congress; especially the United States National Security Act, the establishment of the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the United States Patriot Act. Because the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution has never been amended by the tenants of the Constitution of the United States of America it supersedes all State and Federal laws and acts. The States are therefore empowered, under the Constitution, to organize militias to protect State’s rights as granted by the Constitution of the United States of America and to protect the principles set forth by the Declaration of Independence …

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Article II Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America states:

“The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in the executive Departments, upon any Subject on the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

President John Adams, President Thomas Jefferson, and President James Madison make it perfectly clear in their communications that the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States is to guarantee each State’s individual rights to keep an unorganized militia which may be mobilized as an organized militia to protect the Constitution of the United States of America and to protect the sovereignty of each State and the United States of America as guaranteed by Article II Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States of America. That anyone, including the President, Vice-President, Executive Branch, Congressional Branch, or Judicial Branch of the United States Government may be considered as enemies of the “State” if they exceed their powers as granted under the Constitution of the United States of America.

“And no law enacted by the Congress of the United States or the legislatures of said States shall supersede the rights of the citizens of these said States to form unorganized militias to protect and serve the Constitution of the United States to preserve our rights as stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

In order for the States of our Union to organize militias in a time of emergency it is imperative each State guarantee a citizen’s access to any and all arms deemed necessary to meet the imperative threats for the security of said State’s citizens. The threat of individual rights and liberties in the United States has never been in greater peril from threats, both domestic and foreign. The growth and scope of the United States National Security Agency‘s powers to obstruct and invade our personal freedoms and privacy is unparalleled in our Nation’s history.

The States lost their rights of sovereignty when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and the Union ceased being a Republic and the United States of America became the Federated States of America. The Federal Government was born and the States lost most of their rights as granted under the Constitution of the United States of America.

Then on July 26, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act which stripped the States and individuals of most of their rights as granted under the Constitution. The Act was ratified by Congress on September 18, 1947 and enacted the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency from the newly formed Office of Special Operations, (the OSO evolved from the Army’s Office of Strategic Services and the Central Intelligence Group), as well as, the United States Air Force from the Army Air Corp as separate services. History tells us the National Security Act was signed by the President aboard Air Force One,nearly two months prior to the ratification of the Act by Congress. How could Air Force One exist nearly two months before the Act was actually ratified and officially created the United States Air Force?

Another question I have is “Why was the National Security Act signed by President Truman just twenty days after the Roswell UFO Incident?” What was so terrifying about the Roswell UFO Incident that the US Government felt a need to take such a Draconianaction?

After 9/11 the USA Patriot Act was signed into law granting the Federal Government even more power while stripping States and individuals of more rights. The assault on our individual freedoms continue today as drones are used to spy on US citizens without due process as the U.S. strides closer to a police state.

You are not only being outsourced by your country, but if Big Brother (the NSA) isn’t watching you now they soon will be. As the FBI issues Request for Proposals for software to spy on Social Media web sites, the NSA plans on spying on the world using all electronic media, both nationally and internationally, at their disposal.

As a member of the US Department of Defense the NSA has no legal right to spy on US citizens. NSA national and inter-national surveillance will be expanded with the building and implementation of this new ultra-modern and expansive data center. The NSA will conduct their surveillance without accountability to the Department of Homeland Security nor does it seem that the Department of Justice will interfere with NSA operations.

With the building of the new NSA super data center facility they will be able to tap into all other United States Federal, State, Territorial, County, and Municipal surveillance technology to coordinate their Orwellian Policy. They will also be able to tap into foreign intelligence and law enforcement assets.

As a member of the U.S. Department of Defense the NSA has no legal right to spy on US citizens. NSA national and international surveillance will be expanded with the building and implementation of this new ultra-modern and expansive data center. NSA surveillance without accountability to the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Justice.

The National Security Council, (made up of the President and Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon’s Joint Chief of Staff, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Director of National Intelligence (DNI). and the National Security Advisor), will wield totalitarian power over all citizens of the United States.

With no oversight, (or obviously insight) provided for the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice there will be an attempt on their respective parts to acquire intelligence from the NSA to supplement their own means of gathering domestic intelligence on anti-american agents, activists, and parties, both domestic and foreign, and of their activities to do harm to the security of our nation. The Department of Homeland Security is actively involved in equipping their agencies with the latest technologies available for gathering this intelligence. One such resource available to DHS is its own U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) Student & Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) Database. DHS’s Federal Bureau of Investigation plans on spying on Social Media web sites and their subscribers. This will add to their already growing number of Cyber-Space Surveillance Technologies currently implemented and planned for implementation.

The FBI investigation sanctioned by the Department of Justice of CIA Director General David H. Petraeus exposed his extra-marital affair which FBI officials identified as Ms. Broadwell leading to the immediate resignation of General Petraeus. The Department of Justice has now succeeded in removing one of very few military minds which has successfully protected this country from attacks by terrorists throughout the world.

The DOJ and FBI has succeeded in making this country far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks in the future by removing one our generation’s greatest military and counter-intelligence minds. They have also created a vacuüm which the DoD‘s NSA and DIA is all to willing to fill by increasing their violation of individual freedoms under the Constitution of the United States.

The White House, Director of National Intelligence, and the Congressional Senate and House Committees where caught totally by surprise by the charges levied against General Petraeus. The credibility of the entire Federal Law Enforcement, National Intelligence Agencies, and National Defense Agencies are now in question.

Many questions surrounding National Security need to be answered. First of all; Why did a Federal Agency not coordinate its investigation with all National Security Agencies since one of the most important Agencies was at the center of the investigation. This was the primary reason the Department of Homeland Security formed after 9/11. Yet all protocols to protect the citizens of this Nation were circumvented.

The damage done is enormous. The complete destruction and career of one of the United States most decorated military and counter-intelligence leaders over an extra-marital affair which employees, agents, and lawyers in the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation would not be able to deny themselves. Nothing was gained by this investigation while the interests of National Security have been highly compromised. The White House’s advisers and the President’s Cabinet will now be focused on what other nefarious investigations being conducted by the FBI while the DoD Agencies continue to violate the Constitution of the United States and the rights of private citizens with impunity.

But one thing which has become most prominently obvious. After investing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in the Department of Homeland Security it continues to flounder about with no real charter as an entity bloated of uncoördinated Federal Agencies and hundreds of billions of wasted tax dollars while providing no real services to this country or its citizens. The other obvious deficiency is the Department of Justices ability to effectively investigate and prosecute real national security threats to the citizens of this country.

The Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense need to be investigated by a joint Congressional National Security Committee to assess the charters of and necessity for some Agencies and possibly the existence of DHS as a Federal Government Entity.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The members of all United States Military Departments and Agencies answer for their actions to “We the People”. The U.S. Government has assumed the mantle of the “Supreme Law of the Land”. Yet they have continually proven they do not have to answer to anyone but themselves, least of all to those who have given them the privilege to serve.

All members of Seal Team Six are National Heroes not U.S. Government heroes. They answer to, and only to, “We the People” whom they have given an oath to serve and protect under the Constitution of the United States of America. They will not be held accountable under oath to the Government of the United States of America under any legislative act concerning National Security unless the citizens of the United States deem they have violated their oath under the Constitution. All charges against Seal Team Six by the Department of Defense must be dropped immediately in the interests of National Security as the members of Seal Team Six are heroes of “The People”.

“We the People” have “a right to know” what our “Government” is doing in the interests of National Security to determine if said Federal Government Officials are acting in the best interests of the Nation under the Constitution. It is the people governed by the Constitution of the United States who determine what is in our best interests and those officials appointed U.S. Government officials which have not been elected to their offices by a popular vote and yet act as elected executives of the Government and feel unfettered by the Constitution of this country which guarantees the rights of all citizens who have elected their officials by popular vote.

“We the People” in order to form a “More Perfect Union” and not a “Federal Government” demand our U.S. Government to answer for its actions. If the currently elected Federal Government refuses to abide by the Constitution of these United States it is within our power to relieve them of their duties in any manner deemed necessary to return the Federal Government to operate under the tenants of the Constitution of the United States.

The American Civil War fought from 1861-1865 ranks as the most terrible conflict ever experienced in the Western Hemisphere in recorded history. The Confederate States of America’s War of Secession from the United States of America recorded a total death toll on both sides exceeding 625,000 military personnel killed and 412,200 wounded. Total military casualties exceeded 1,037,200. The number of civilian casualties throughout the Civil War are unknown but most probably exceeded several million as collateral casualties of war, and from disease, and starvation.

In comparison, World War II United States military personnel killed was 416,837 with 683,846 wounded for a total of 1,100,683 casualties. However when the number of American civilian casualties is factored in World War II pales in comparison. The destruction caused to the Southern Confederacy also greatly exceeds the destruction caused to the Continental United States during World War II.

On July 1, 1863 the bloodiest battle ever fought in recorded history in the Western Hemisphere was fought for three days in and around the township of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the eve of the anniversary of the signing of the American Continental Congress’s adoption of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776. This battle of the Confederate States of America‘s attempt to secede from the Union of the United States of America seems to have become a footnote in American Civil War history. Yet, on the eve of “The Battle of Gettysburg‘s” anniversary, this engagement means far more than a turning point in the “War of Secession“. Up to this point, the Confederate States of America had been winning the war against the Union. Robert E. Lee, General of the Army of Northern Virginia for the Confederate States of America, (who became the Confederacy’s closest military adviser to President Jefferson Davis, former Secretary of War of the United States of America), as he won battle after battle against the Union forces of the North until Gettysburg, where he lost his first major, and possibly greatest battle, in a shattering defeat which devastated the Southern States’ psyche in its attempt to secede from the Union.

The American Civil War was not a rebellion of loosely aligned Southern States against a unified U.S. Federal Government. It was a war of armies on both sides made up of numerous regiments from individual states dedicated to the cause of a Union of Northern States versus a Confederacy of Southern States based on whether the law of the Central U.S. Government superseded the rights of States granted under the Constitution of the United States of America. When President Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, and his final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, President Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederacy saw it as a supreme threat to the vital security and economy of the Confederacy. This set the stage for the epic Battle of Gettysburg.

General E. Lee was arguably the greatest military mind and field general ever to graduate from the West Point Academy, (Class of 1829). Robert E. Lee served in the United States Army from 1829–1861. Resigning his commission as a colonel on April 20, 1861 for a commission in the Confederate States of America as a colonel and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23. During his career in the United States Army he distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), as a chief aid to BrevetLieutenant GeneralWinfield Scott:

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Colonel Robert E. Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia’s forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full generals. General Lee’s first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks. Following the wounding of General Joseph E. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines, on June 1, 1862, General Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, his first opportunity to lead an army in the field.

In the spring of 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac under Major General George B. McClellan advanced upon Richmond from Fort Monroe, eventually reaching the eastern edges of the Confederate capital along the Chickahominy River. General Lee then launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Battles, against General McClellan’s forces. General Lee’s assaults resulted in heavy Confederate casualties. They were marred by clumsy tactical performances by his division commanders, but his aggressive actions unnerved General McClellan, who retreated to a point on the James River and abandoned the Peninsula Campaign.

After General McClellan’s retreat, General Lee defeated another Union army under the command of Union General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run also known as the Battle of Second Manassas. Within 90 days of taking command, General Lee had run Union General McClellan off the Peninsula, defeated General Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run and had moved the battle lines from 6 miles outside Richmond, to 20 miles outside of Washington D.C..

General Lee then invaded Maryland, hoping to replenish his supplies and possibly influence the Northern elections to fall in favor of ending the war. General McClellan’s men recovered a lost order that revealed General Lee’s plans. General McClellan, however, was too slow in moving, not realizing General Lee had been informed by a spy that General McClellan knew of his plans. General Lee urgently recalled Lieutenant General (CSA)Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, concentrating his forces west of Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. In the bloodiest day of the war thus far, (The Battle of Antietam, also known as Battle of Sharpsburg), both sides suffered enormous losses. General Lee miraculously withstood the Union assaults. His army severely battered, General Lee withdrew back to Virginia.

When President Abraham Lincoln used the Confederate reversal as an opportunity to announce the Emancipation Proclamation putting the Confederacy on the diplomatic and moral defensive, and would ultimately devastate the Confederacy’s slave-based economy. Disappointed by General McClellan’s failure to destroy General Lee’s army, President Lincoln named General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. General Burnside ordered an attack across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Delays in building bridges across the river allowed General Lee’s army ample time to organize strong defenses, and the frontal assault by Union forces on December 13, 1862, was a disaster for the Union. There were 12,600 Union casualties to 5,000 Confederate; one of the most “one-sided battles” in the Civil War.

After the bitter Union defeat at Fredericksburg, President Lincoln named General Joseph Hooker commander of the Army of the Potomac. General Hooker’s advance to attack General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in May, 1863, near Chancellorsville, Virginia, was defeated by General Lee and his famed General, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s daring plan to divide the army by attacking Union General Hooker’s flank. It was a victory over a larger force, but it also came with high casualties. It was particularly costly in one respect: General Lee’s finest corps commander, General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, was accidentally fired upon by his own troops. Weakened by his wounds, he succumbed to pneumonia. The loss of General Thomas Jackson may have been General Lee’s greatest loss until the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Battle of Gettysburg by Currier and Ives

The Battle of Gettysburg, was fought July 1–3, 1863, in Adams County and in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war’s turning point. Union Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee’s invasion of the Union North.

Up to this point in the American Civil War, the General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, had not lost any military actions or battles which jeopardized the Confederates Army of Northern Virginia during the war. Robert E. Lee is arguably the greatest general ever to graduate from West Point. Yet he lost the Battle of Gettysburg because he ignored several Sun Tzu fundamentals of war.

General Robert E. Lee’s strategy was to deceive the Army of the Potomac by feinting a direct attack on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as it was a predominant strategic objective. Harrisburg was a significant training center for the Union Army, with tens of thousands of troops passing through Camp Curtin. It was also a major rail center and a vital link between the Atlantic coast and the Midwest, with several railroads running through the city and over the Susquehanna River. From Harrisburg, General Lee would have access to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania’s coal mining and steel manufacturing mills and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s industrial armory manufacturing. General Lee would be able to cut-off weapons and munitions supplies from the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Pennsylvania, thus crippling the entire Union Armies’ supply lines.

General Robert E. Lee’s true strategic objective to divert the Union Army of the Potomac to engage his attack on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania would leave the Capital of Washington, D.C.. in Maryland, on the border with Virginia, defenseless to an attack by Robert E. Lee’s Army’s main body. General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate States of America’s President Jefferson Davis believed that if they captured the Union’s Capital City, President Abraham Lincoln, and Congress, that the war would be ended with the unconditional surrender of the Union and the recognition of the Confederate States of America.

However, General Robert E. Lee was unaware that in a dispute over the use of the forces defending the Harpers Ferry garrison, Major General Joseph Hooker Commander of the Army of the Potomac offered his resignation, and President Lincoln and General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck, who were looking for an excuse to get rid of General Hooker, immediately accepted. They replaced General Hooker early on the morning of June 28, 1863 with Major General George Gordon Meade, then commander of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac, making him Commanding General of the Union’s Army of the Potomac.

General Lee’s strategy was founded on the premise that Major General Joseph Hooker would panic, and break Sun Tzu’s axiom by “fighting first than seeking victory”, by trying to defend Harrisburg thus leaving Washington D.C. virtually defenseless. In the end, General Robert E. Lee was the one to make that very same error in judgement by “fighting first than seeking victory” at the Battle of Gettysburg.

On June 29, when General Lee learned that the Army of the Potomac had crossed the Potomac River, he ordered a concentration of his forces around Cashtown, located at the eastern base of South Mountain and eight miles west of Gettysburg.

Knowing General Lee could either take Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or Washington, D.C. in Virginia, Major General George G. Meade conferred with his staff to decide how to defend against General Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania. On June 30, 1863, under orders from General George G. Meade, Brigadier General John Buford of the Union Army, arrived south of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Also on June 30, Confederate Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew, ventured toward Gettysburg to search for supplies, in particular shoes for his barefoot troops, in the town of Gettysburg, under the orders of Major General Henry Heth, his division commander.

Despite General Lee’s order to avoid a general engagement until his entire army was concentrated, Confederate Major General Heth’s commanding officer, Lieutenant General Hill, decided to mount a significant “reconnaissance in force” the following morning to determine the size and strength of the enemy force in his front (Brigadier General John Buford of the Union Army). Around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, two brigades of Confederate General Heth’s division advanced to Gettysburg.

Battle of Gettysburg, First Day, July 1, 1863

The Beginning

The Battle Field Of Gettysburg July 1863

Anticipating that the Confederates would march on Gettysburg from the west on the morning of July 1, Union Brigadier General John Buford laid out his defenses on three ridges west of the town: Herr Ridge, McPherson Ridge, and Seminary Ridge. These were appropriate terrain for a delaying action by his small cavalry division against superior Confederate infantry forces, and was meant to buy time, awaiting the arrival of Union infantrymen who could occupy the strong defensive positions south of town at Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and Culp’s Hill. Brigadier General John Buford understood that if the Confederates could gain control of these heights, General Meade’s army would have significant difficulty dislodging them. And if General Lee placed a battery of cannons in these positions they could rain down death and destruction on Union forces attempting to retake these strategic positions.

Union Brigadier General John Buford used Mark McNeilly‘s fourth and fifth principles of his publication “Sun Tzu and The Art of Modern Warfare” (“Speed and Preparation” to “Prepare the Battlefield”), and Sun Tzu’s axiom’s 7, 9, and 10 (“bring their enemy to the field of battle”; “only fight if a position or objective is critical!”; and “Hold the high ground to maintain an advantage over the enemy”. Being confronted by superior forces, General Buford chose to defend the high ground, in a holding action, waiting for the Union I Corps commanded by Major General John F. Reynolds to reinforce him and cover his flank.

Map of Battle of Gettysburg Map – July 1, 1863

Major General Heth’s Confederate division advanced with two brigades forward, commanded by Brigadier Generals James J. Archer and Joseph R. Davis. They proceeded easterly in columns along the Chambersburg Pike. Eventually, General Heth’s men reached dismounted troopers of Colonel William Gamble‘s cavalry brigade, who raised determined resistance and delaying tactics from behind fence posts with fire from their breechloading carbines.Still, by 10:20 a.m., the Confederates had pushed the Union cavalrymen east to McPherson Ridge, at which time the vanguard of the Union I Corps lead by Major General John F. Reynolds finally reinforced Colonel Gamble’s tattered cavalry brigade.

North of the pike, Confederate General Davis gained a temporary success against Union Brigadier General Lysander Cutler‘s brigade but was repulsed with heavy losses in an action around an unfinished railroad bed cut in the ridge. South of the pike, General Archer’s Confederate brigade assaulted through McPherson’s Woods. The Federal Iron Brigade under Union Brigadier General Solomon Meredith enjoyed initial success against General Archer’s attacks, and captured several hundred men, including Brigadier General Archer himself.

Union Major General Reynolds of I Corps was shot and killed early in the fighting while directing troop and artillery placements just to the east of the woods. Shelby Foote wrote that “the Union cause lost a man considered by many to be the best general in the army.” Union Major General Abner Doubleday assumed command of I Corps. Fighting in the Chambersburg Pike area lasted until about 12:30 p.m. It resumed around 2:30 p.m., when Heth’s entire division engaged, adding the brigades of General Pettigrew and Colonel John M. Brockenbrough.

As Brigadier General Pettigrew’s North Carolina Brigade came on line, they flanked the Union’s 19th Indiana and drove the Iron Brigade back. The 26th North Carolina (the largest regiment in the Confederate Army with 839 men) lost heavily, leaving the first day’s fight with around 212 men. By the end of the three-day battle, they had about 152 men standing, the highest casualty percentage for one battle of any regiment, North or South.Slowly the Iron Brigade was pushed out of the woods toward Seminary Ridge. Confederate Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill, added Major General William Dorsey Pender‘s division to the assault, and the Union I Corps was driven back through the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary and into Gettysburg’s streets.

As the fighting to the west proceeded, two divisions of Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Stoddert Ewell‘s Second Corps, marching west toward Cashtown in accordance with General Lee’s order for the army to concentrate in that vicinity, turned south on the Carlisle and Harrisburg roads toward Gettysburg, while the Union XI Corps commanded by Major General Oliver O. Howard raced north on the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road. By early afternoon, the Union’s line ran in a semicircle west, north, and northeast of Gettysburg.

The Union forces did not have enough troops; Union Brigadier General Lysander Cutler, was deployed north of the Chambersburg Pike, with his right flank unprotected. The leftmost division of the Union XI Corps was unable to deploy in time to strengthen the line, so Major General Abner Doubleday was forced to throw in reserve brigades to salvage his line.

Around 2 p.m., the Confederate Second Corps divisions of Major Generals Robert E. Rodes and Jubal Early assaulted and out-flanked the Union I and XI Corps positions north and northwest of town. The Confederate brigades of Colonel Edward A. O’Neal and Brigadier General Alfred Iverson suffered severe losses assaulting the Union I Corps division of Brigadier General John C. Robinson south of Oak Hill. General Early’s division profited from a blunder by Union Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow, when he advanced his XI Corps division to Blocher’s Knoll (directly north of town and now known as Barlow’s Knoll); creating a protrusion in the line, (open to flanking attacks from both sides), and General Early’s troops overran General Barlow’s division, which constituted the right flank of the Union Army’s position. General Barlow was wounded and captured in the attack.

Due to the setbacks of the Union forces to mount effective defenses Major General Winfield S. Hancock assumed command of the battlefield. Sent by General Meade when he heard that General Reynolds had been killed, Major General Hancock, commander of the II Corps and Meade’s most trusted subordinate, was ordered to take command of the field and to determine whether Gettysburg was an appropriate place for a major battle. General Hancock proved to be worthy of the task of mounting the proper defenses of General Lee’s strategy to destroy the Union Army of the Potomac.

General Hancock quickly deduced that Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, and Cemetery Hill would provide the Union forces a formidable position to anchor its defenses against the onslaught to come from General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Major General Hancock used Sun Tzu’s axioms 5,7, 9 and 10 to form his strategy to prepare the battlefield and dictate the terms of combat to the enemy with speed and preparation to overcome resistance.

Confederate Lieutenant General Hill’s blatant disregard to General Robert E. Lee’s standing order “not to engage the enemy” disregarded not only the chain of command but also Sun Tzu’s axioms 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13. Lieutenant General Hill’s numerical advantage, previous string of victories, and hubris contributed to his complete disregard of Mark McNeilly’s sixth principle “Character-Based Leadership: Leading by Example”. Although the Confederates gained terrain on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Sun Tzu’s axiom 13 “Some ground should not be contested if it has no tactical or strategic advantage!” was totally disregarded. The Confederate advantage on the first day of the battle provided no strategic advantage in obtaining General Lee’s objective to capture Washington D.C.

The first day at Gettysburg, more significant than simply a prelude to the bloody second and third days, ranks as the 23rd largest battle of the war by number of troops engaged. About one quarter of Meade’s army (22,000 men) and one third of Lee’s army (27,000) were engaged. Confederate Lieutenant General Hill seemed to completely disregard Sun Tzu’s 5th axiom “The winning army realizes the conditions for victory first, then fights!”.

Battle of Gettysburg, Second Day, July 2, 1863

Throughout the evening of July 1 and morning of July 2, most of the remaining infantry of both armies arrived on the field, including the Union II, III, V, VI, and XII Corps. Confederate Lieutenant General Longstreet’s third division, commanded by Major General George Pickett, had begun the march from Chambersburg early in the morning; it did not arrive until late on July 2.

Map of The Battle of Gettysburg Map on July 2, 1863

The Union line ran from Culp’s Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles along Cemetery Ridge, terminating just north of Little Round Top. Most of the Union XII Corps was on Culp’s Hill; the remnants of the Union I and XI Corps defended Cemetery Hill; Union II Corps covered most of the northern half of Cemetery Ridge; and Union III Corps was ordered to take up a position to its flank. The shape of the Union line is popularly described as a “fishhook” formation. The Confederate line paralleled the Union line about a mile to the west on Seminary Ridge, ran east through the town, then curved southeast to a point opposite Culp’s Hill. Thus, the Union army had interior lines, while the Confederate line was nearly five miles long.

General Robert E. Lee’s battle plan for July 2 called for Lieutenant General James Longstreet‘s First Corps to position itself stealthily to attack the Union left flank, facing northeast astraddle the Emmitsburg Road, and to roll up the Federal line. The progressive en echelon sequence of this attack would prevent Union General George Meade from shifting troops from his center to bolster his left flank. At the same time, Confederate Major General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson’s and Lieutenant General Jubal Early’s Second Corps divisions were to make a feint against Culp’s and Cemetery Hills (again, to prevent the shifting of Union troops), and to turn the feint into a full-scale attack if a favorable opportunity presented itself.

General Robert E. Lee’s strategy was based on faulty intelligence. Instead of moving beyond the Union’s left and attacking their flank, Confederate Lieutenant General Longstreet’s left division would face the Union Major General Daniel Sickles‘s III Corps directly in their path. General Sickles had been dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing higher ground more favorable to artillery positions a half mile to the west, he advanced his corps—without orders—to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road. The new line ran from Devil’s Den, northwest to the Sherfy farm’s Peach Orchard, then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm. However, this created an untenable position at the Peach Orchard. Union Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys‘s division (in position along the Emmitsburg Road) and Major General David B. Birney‘s division (to the south) were subject to attacks from two sides and were spread out over a longer front than their small corps could defend effectively.

Attack on the Union Left Flank

Map of The Battle of Gettysburg for Left Flank Union Army on July 2, 1863

As Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s divisions slammed into the Union III Corps, Major General George Meade was forced to send 20,000 reinforcements in the form of the entire V Corps, Brigadier General John C. Caldwell‘s division of the II Corps, most of the XII Corps, and small portions of the newly arrived VI Corps. The Confederate assault deviated from General Lee’s plan since Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood‘s division moved more easterly than intended, losing its alignment with the Emmitsburg Road, attacking Devil’s Den and Little Round Top. Confederate Major General Lafayette McLaws, coming in on Confederate Lieutenant General Hood’s left, drove multiple attacks into the thinly stretched Union III Corps in the Wheatfield and overwhelmed them in Sherfy’s Peach Orchard.

Confederate Major General McLaws’s attack eventually reached Plum Run Valley (the “Valley of Death”) before being beaten back by the Union’s Pennsylvania Reserves division of the V Corps, moving down from Little Round Top. The Union III Corps was virtually destroyed as an effective combat unit in this battle, and General Sickles’s leg was amputated after it was shattered by a cannonball. Union Brigadier General John Curtis Caldwell‘s division was destroyed piecemeal in the Wheatfield. Confederate Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson‘s division, coming from Major General McLaws’s left and starting forward around 6 p.m., reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, but it could not hold the position in the face of counterattacks from the Union II Corps, including an almost suicidal bayonet charge by the small 1st Minnesota regiment against a Confederate brigade, ordered in desperation by Major General Winfield Scott Hancock to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.

Bayonet Charge of the Union’s 20th Maine from Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg

As fighting raged in the Wheatfield and Devil’s Den, Union Colonel Strong Vincent of V Corps had a precarious hold on Little Round Top, an important hill at the extreme left of the Union line. His brigade of four relatively small regiments was able to resist repeated assaults by Confederate Brigadier General Evander M. Law‘s brigade of Lieutenant General Hood’s division. General George Meade’s chief engineer, Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren, had realized the importance of this position, and dispatched Colonel Vincent’s brigade, an artillery battery, and the 140th New York to occupy Little Round Top mere minutes before Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood’s troops arrived. The defense of Little Round Top with a bayonet charge by the Union’s 20th Maine was one of the most fabled episodes in the American Civil War.

Attack on the Union Right Flank

The Battle of Gettysburg July 2, 1863 – Union breastworks Culp Hill on Right Flank

About 7:00 p.m., the Union Second Corps’ attack by Confederate Major General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson‘s division on Culp’s Hill got off to a late start. Most of the hill’s defenders, the Union XII Corps, had been sent to the left to defend against Confederate Lieutenant General Longstreet’s attacks, and the only portion of the corps remaining on the hill was a Union brigade of New Yorkers under Brigadier General George S. Greene. Because of General Greene’s insistence on constructing strong defensive works, and with reinforcements from the I and XI Corps, General Greene’s men held off the Confederate attackers, although the Southerners did capture a portion of the abandoned Union defensive positions on the lower part of Culp’s Hill.

At first dark, two of Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early‘s brigades attacked the Union XI Corps positions on East Cemetery Hill where Union Colonial Andrew L. Harris of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, came under a withering attack, losing half his men; however, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early failed to support his brigades in their attack, and Confederate Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell‘s remaining division, that of Major General Robert E. Rodes, failed to aid Lieutenant General Jubal Early’s attack by moving against Cemetery Hill from the west. The Union army’s interior lines enabled its commanders to shift troops quickly to critical areas, and with reinforcements from the Union II Corps, the Union troops retained possession of East Cemetery Hill, and Lieutenant General Jubal Early’s brigades were forced to withdraw.

Battle of Gettysburg, Third Day, July 3, 1863

Painting of The Battle of Gettysburg July 3, 1863 by Currier and Ives

Confederate General Robert E. Lee wished to renew the attack on Friday, July 3, using the same basic plan as the previous day: Lieutenant General James Longstreet would attack the Union’s left defensive position, while Lieutenant General Richard Ewell attacked Culp’s Hill. However, before Lieutenant General James Longstreet was ready, Union XII Corps troops started a dawn artillery bombardment against the Confederates on Culp’s Hill in an effort to regain a portion of their lost works. The Confederates attacked, and the second fight for Culp’s Hill ended around 11 a.m., after some seven hours of bitter combat.

Unable to fully control Culp’s Hill, General Lee should have recalled Napoleon Bonaparte’s situation at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815. As Napoleon Bonaparte had believed at the Battle of Waterloo versus the British under the command of the Duke of Wellington, General Robert E Lee believed if he could break through the center of the Union’s defenses and roll up through the lines of defense to the left he could collapse the entire Union defensive positions.

General Robert E. Lee completely ignored all the axioms of Sun Tzu, as Napoleon Bonaparte had, and he completely ignored Mark McNeilly’s 4th principle of preparedness and Sun Tzu’s “understanding of your enemies alliances and resources”. General Lee also ignored Su Tzu’s 9th axiom “Only fight if a position or objective is critical!”. The town of Gettysburg had no strategic value to General Lee’s plans. But like Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo he still decided to press the attack.

As Brigadier General Hermann Haupt had assisted the Union Army of Virginia and Army of the Potomac in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Maryland Campaign, he was particularly effective in supporting the Gettysburg Campaign, conducted in an area he knew well from his youth. During the Battle of Gettysburg, General Haupt hastily organized trains which kept the Union Army well supplied, and he organized the returning trains to carry thousands of Union wounded to hospitals. After the battle, Haupt boarded one of his trains and arrived at the White House on July 6, 1863, being the first to inform President Lincoln that General Lee’s defeated army was not being pursued vigorously by Union Major General Meade.

As Napoleon knew the Prussian Army was closing in on his army to re-enforce the Duke of Wellington and the British, General Robert E. Lee knew General George G. Meade and the Army of the Potomac was being resupplied with troops, weapons, and munitions from the railroad yards in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Map of The Battle of Gettysburg Map on July 3, 1863

Without full control of Culp’s Hill, General Robert E Lee was forced to change his plans. General Lee ordered Lieutenant General James Longstreet to mount a major offensive against Major General George G. Meade’s Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Its futility was questioned by the General James Longstreet, and was arguably an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort never fully recovered psychologically. Historians have questioned if Lieutenant General James Longstreet had the resolve to personally issue the fateful orders to Major General George Edward Pickett to have his Virginia division, of First Corps, plus six brigades from Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill‘s Corps, attack the Union II Corps position at the right center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge.

Prior to the attack, all the artillery the Confederacy could bring to bear on the Union positions was used to bombard and weaken the Union’s center of its defensive line. Around 1 p.m., from 150 to 170 Confederate guns began an artillery bombardment that was probably the largest of the war. In order to save valuable ammunition for the infantry attack that they knew would follow, the Union Army of the Potomac’s artillery, under the command of Brigadier General Henry Jackson Hunt, at first did not return the enemy’s fire. After waiting about 15 minutes, approximately 80 Union cannons returned fire. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was critically low on artillery ammunition, and their cannonade barrage did not significantly affect the Union defensive positions.

Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500 Confederate soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as “Pickett’s Charge”. As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union artillery positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and rifled musket and canon canister fire from Major General Hancock‘s II Corps. In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment, leading Confederate commanders to believe the Union cannon batteries had been knocked out. However, they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results using canister grapeshot munitions. Nearly one half of the Confederate attackers did not return to their own lines. Although the Union line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the “Angle” in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, Union reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repulsed. The farthest advance of Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead‘s brigade of Major General George Pickett’s division at the Angle is referred to as the “High-water mark of the Confederacy”, arguably representing the closest the Confederacy ever came to its goal of achieving independence from the Union via military victory.

Gettysburg Map of Union and Confederate Positions and Calvary Engagements

There were two significant cavalry engagements on July 3. Major General James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuartwas sent to guard the Confederate left flank and was to be prepared to exploit any success the infantry might achieve on Cemetery Hill by flanking the Union right and hitting their train railways and lines of communications. Three miles east of Gettysburg, in what is now called “East Cavalry Field”, Major General Jeb Stuart’s forces collided with Union cavalry: Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg’s division and Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer‘s brigade. A lengthy mounted battle, including hand-to-hand sabre combat, ensued. General Custer’s charge, leading the 1st Michigan Cavalry, blunted the attack by Lieutenant General Wade Hampton‘s brigade, blocking Major General Jeb Stuart from achieving his objectives in the Union rear.

After hearing news of the day’s victory, Union Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick launched a cavalry attack against the infantry positions of Lieutenant General Longstreet’s Corps southwest of Big Round Top. Ordered to hold his position on the lower earthen works of Big Round Top, Union Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth protested against the futility of such a move but obeyed his orders. Farnsworth was killed in the attack, and his brigade suffered significant losses.

Aftermath

General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia’s Withdrawal – July 5-14, 1863

Map of The Battle of Gettysburg Confederate Retreat – July 5-14, 1863

General Lee started his Army of Northern Virginia in motion late the evening of July 4 towards Fairfield and Chambersburg. Cavalry under Brigadier General John D. Imboden was entrusted to escort the miles-long wagon train of supplies and wounded men that General Lee wanted to take back to Virginia with him, using the route through Cashtown and Hagerstown to Williamsport, Maryland. General Meade’s Army of the Potomac followed, although the pursuit was not pursued with any great fervor as the Union forces were exhausted. The recently rain-swollen Potomac trapped General Lee’s army on the north bank of the river for a time, but when the Union forces finally caught up, the Confederates had forded the river. The rear-guard action at Falling Waters on July 14 added some more names to the long casualty lists, including General Pettigrew, who was mortally wounded.

Turning Point of the War

It is argued by historians as to whether The Battle of Gettysburg was a decisive victory for the Union forces. Up until Gettysburg the Confederate States of America was winning the Confederate States of America’s War of Succession. If Gettysburg is not considered a decisive victory it most certainly should be considered the turning point of the Civil War.

The American Civil War, as it became known, lasted two more years. The Confederacy never again held the advantage. But the remainder of the war grew brutal and ever so more personal then it had been prior to and during its first two years. Even today the slogan “The Confederacy will rise again!” rings out in many of the original states of the Confederate States of America.

General George G. Meade – Commander of the Army of the Potomac

General George Meade remained Commander of the Army of the Potomac until March 1864. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant Commander of all Union armies in his stead.

President Abraham Lincoln never forgave General George Meade for not destroying the Army of Northern Virginia and allowing General Robert E. Lee to escape with his army across the Potomac River into Virginia causing the American Civil War to continue for another two years. General Robert E. Lee’s withdrawal began on July 5 of 1863 and took till July 14 to complete.

On January 31, 1865, General Robert E. Lee was promoted to general-in-chief of Confederate forces.

This was a desperate act by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to bolster the moral of the Confederate Troops as Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, under orders from General Ulysses S. Grant, ripped through the Southern Confederacy destroying and burning everything in his path in particular the total destruction of Atlanta, Georgia by razing and burning the city to the ground on September 2, 1864 and culminating with his “March to the Sea” and taking the strategic port city of Savannah, Georgia on November 16, 1864 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21, 1864; when on December 13, William B. Hazen’s division of General Oliver Otis Howard‘s army stormed Fort McAllister, guarding the Ogeechee River, south of Savannah, in the Battle of Fort McAllister and captured it within 15 minutes. With the taking of the Port of Savannah, the Union Fleet was able to resupply, re-equip, and reinforce Major General Sherman’s army.

Most historian’s, (probably from the North), downplay the total destruction of Atlanta, Georgia, as only the destruction of approximately 30% of the city. However, it is more likely that the firestorm that ensued in Atlanta could have destroyed as much as 65% of the city. This would have severally crippled the remaining 35%, and most certainly ruined the Confederacy’s principal source of supplies to the Armies of the Confederacy. Atlanta, Georgia was comparable to the Union’s Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as the major lynch-pin to the logistical support of their armies.

General Sherman then set into motion the plans of General Ulysses S. Grant to trap Richmond Virginia and General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in a pincer maneuver.

General Lee’s army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than General Grant’s. Union forces won a decisive victory at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865 forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond.

With an Army of 60,000 Union infantry and cavalry, General Sherman would have to move north towards Richmond, Virginia, through South Carolina and North Carolina. General Sherman was particularly interested in targeting South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union, because of the effect that it would have on Southern morale. Upon taking the capital city of Columbia, South Carolina, General Sherman’s troops, without orders from General Sherman, put the capital city to the torch burning it to the ground. General Sherman proceeded through central South Carolina cutting a swath of destruction to all war and economic facilities and materials in the state.

Upon reaching North Carolina, General Sherman ordered his troops to exercise restraint, as North Carolina had shown serious reservations about seceding from the Union by a voting to secede by a narrow majority. General Sherman’s army met surprised resistance from Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, under orders from General Robert E. Lee, to stop the advance of General Sherman’s Union Army. With only 22,000 infantry and cavalry, on March 19, 1865, General Johnston was able to catch the left-wing of General Sherman’s army by surprise at the Battle of Bentonville and briefly gained some tactical successes before superior numbers forced him to retreat to Raleigh, North Carolina. Unable to secure the capital, General Johnston’s army withdrew to Greensboro.

Surrender

The Confederacy never recovered from the Battle of Gettysburg and slowly deteriorated till its surrender by General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865 to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, General of the Army of the Union, at the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House. Once General Sherman’s Army reached the East Coast and established contact with the Union Fleet. Union victory appeared certain, and Lincoln resolved to attempt a negotiated end to the war with the Confederates.

He enlisted Francis Preston Blair to carry a message to Jefferson Davis. President Davis appointed three Commissioners, who were sent to Grant to arrange a peace conference. Meanwhile, Lincoln sent Secretary of State Seward and his emissary Major Thomas T. Eckert to Hampton Roads to facilitate a meeting. Eckert met with the Confederate Commissioners and insisted that they acknowledge that “one common country” was to be the subject of the conference. This brought matters to a halt; General Grant contacted President Lincoln directly and he agreed to personally meet with the Commissioners at Fort Monroe. Though Grant was pivotal in arranging the peace conference, it ultimately yielded no results; but Grant had demonstrated a remarkable willingness and ability to assume a diplomatic role beyond his normal military posture.

After learning of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, General Johnston agreed to meet with General Sherman between the lines at a small farm known as Bennett Place near present day Durham, North Carolina. After three separate days (April 17, 18, and 26, 1865) of negotiations, Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It was the largest surrender of the war, totaling 89,270 soldiers.General Robert E. Lee was arguably the greatest military mind to graduate from The United States Military Academy at West Point. He was a top graduate of the Academy graduating second in his class of 1829.

After General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox he faded from history. Yet his rival Ulysses S. Grant became the 18th President of the United States. Ulysses S. Grant graduated 21st in his class from The United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843.

While General Robert E. Lee was always regarded as an officer and gentleman of the highest honor, Ulysses S. Grant’s Presidential Administration was one of the most corrupt in United States history.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis

Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife were captured on May 10, 1865, at Irwinville in Irwin County, Georgia. On May 19, 1865, Davis was imprisoned in a casemate at Fortress Monroe, on the coast of Virginia. He was placed in irons for three days. Jefferson Davis was indicted for treason a year later. After two years of imprisonment, Davis was released on bail of $100,000, which was posted by prominent citizens of both Northern and Southern states, including Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Gerrit Smith. Jefferson Davis visited Canada, Cuba and Europe in search of work. In December 1868 the court rejected a motion to nullify the indictment, but the prosecution dropped the case in February 1869. Falling into obscurity, Jefferson Davis completed A Short History of the Confederate States of America in October 1889. He died at age 81 at 12:45 AM on Friday, December 6, 1889, in the presence of several friends and with his hand in his wife Varina’s.

President Abraham Lincoln

After being in a coma for nine hours, President Abraham Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15 1865, after John Wilkes Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, aimed a derringer at the back of the President’s head and fired at point-blank range, mortally wounding the President while he and his wife attended a play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14.

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth, believed to be a member of “The Knights of the Golden Circle”, was finally trapped and fatally wounded in the neck, by Union troops, and was dragged from the barn to the porch of the Richard H. Garrett’s farm, just south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia, where he died three hours later, on April 24, 1865, at the age of 26. The bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. In his dying moments, he reportedly whispered, “Tell my mother I died for my country”.

John Wilkes Booth was not readily forgotten. Frank and Jesse James, of the famed “James and Younger Gang”, continued to fight a guerrilla war against the Federal Government for several years as members of “The Knights of the Golden Circle” by robbing banks and payroll shipments owned by Northern Carpetbaggers and Railroad Robber Barons to provide capital for the rising of a new Confederacy. There efforts to the call that “The South Shall Rise Again!” ended in failure.

Today

Many secret and secretive organizations still exist today in an attempt to reform the Confederate States of America – CSA. Some of these organizations are:

The Order of the Knights of the Golden Circle – also known of the KGC

The Ku Klux Klan – also known as the KKK

The Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

The Knights of the White Camelia

The Invisible Empire

The Nine Nations of North America

Casualties of The Battle of Gettysburg

How Many People Died In The Battle Of Gettysburg?

The two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing), while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors have referred to as many as 28,000 Confederate casualties, but Busey and Martin’s more recent definitive 2005 work, “Regimental Strengths and Losses”, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). Nearly a third of General Robert E. Lee’s general officers were killed, wounded, or captured. The casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225.

The total number of Union and Confederate forces officially killed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania probably exceeded 8,000 dead. If the count of those missing in action, (Union missing 5369 and Confederate missing 5827), could represent as many as were captured for a total of 11,196). Since most prisoners of war perished in prison camps both North and South it could be concluded that the total number of forces which died because of The Battle of Gettysburg could have easily exceeded 14,000.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the single most bloody battle of the American Civil War. This battle which occurred from the July 1-3, 1863 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania resulted in 51,000 casualties of which 28,000 were Confederate soldiers. Even though the Union was considered the winner of the battle the war continued for two more years.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the single most bloodiest battle ever recorded on American soil.

The following tables summarize casualties by corps for the Union and Confederate forces during the three day battle.

You are not only being outsourced by your country, if Big Brother (the NSA) isn’t watching you now they soon will be. As the FBI issues Request for Proposals for software to spy on Social Media web sites, the NSA plans on spying on the world using all electronic media, both nationally and internationally, at their disposal.

This is in addition to the NSA‘s high resolution satellite video, audio, and electronic surveillance. The NSA and other U.S. Government Agencies, (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire Arms, & Explosives (BATFE or commonly known as the ATF), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the United States Secret Service, the United States Marshals Service, National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Council (NSC)), are using aerial surveillance drones of every make and model, both military and private industrial, in conjunction with State, County, and Municipal Law Enforcement assets to spy on United States private citizens without due process of law as specified in the United States Constitution.

As a member of the US Department of Defense the NSA has no legal right to spy on US citizens. NSA national and international surveillance will be expanded with the building and implementation of this new ultra-modern and expansive data center. The NSA will conduct their surveillance without accountability to the Department of Homeland Security nor does it seem that the Department of Justice will interfere with NSA operations.

With the building of the new NSA super data center facility they will be able to tap into all other United States Federal, State, Territorial, County, and Municipal surveillance technology to coordinate their Orwellian Policy. They will also be able to tap into foreign intelligence and law enforcement assets.

As a member of the U.S. Department of Defense the NSA has no legal right to spy on US citizens. NSA national and international surveillance will be expanded with the building and implementation of this new ultra-modern and expansive data center. NSA surveillance without accountability to the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Justice.

The National Security Council, (made up of the President and Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon’s Joint Chief of Staff, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Director of National Intelligence (DNI). and the National Security Advisor), will wield totalitarian power over all citizens of the United States.

With no oversight, (or obviously insight) provided for the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justicethere will be an attempt on their respective parts to acquire intelligence from the NSA to supplement their own means of gathering domestic intelligence on anti-american agents, activists, and parties, both domestic and foreign, and of their activities to do harm to the security of our nation. The Department of Homeland Security is actively involved in equipping their agencies with the latest technologies available for gathering this intelligence. One such resource available to DHS is its own U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) Student & Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) Database. DHS‘s Federal Bureau of Investigation plans on spying on Social Media web sites and their subscribers. This will add to their already growing number of Cyber-Space Surveillance Technologies currently implemented and planned for implementation.

More on the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS) and the use of its Student & Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) Database to spy on naturalized U.S. Citizens and foreign worker, traveler, business, and student U.S. Visa holders in the United States in the next post.

It would seem the Department of Justice’sFBI‘s violation of civil rights has no limits as the Agency issues an RFI for a tool that can monitor social network data to identify and assess potential threats to the U.S. Please see the article at URL http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9224235/FBI_seeks_social_media_monitoring_tool?source=CTWNLE_nlt_datamgmt_2012-02-22.

The FBI has begun searching for a tool that will allow it to gather and mine data from social networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs to access data and identify potential threats to the U.S. This means they will be monitoring your and my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Google+, Microsoft Live, Yahoo, eBay, Craigslist and other profiles, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of blogs like this one to determine if we are a threat to the security of the U.S.

With the Department of Defense‘s National Security Agency spying on all international communications including those emanating from and to the United States, including its territories and commonwealths, the Department of Defense has exceeded its authority to spy on US citizens, enterprises, corporations, businesses, foundations; and non-profit, philanthropic and religious organizations.

My paramount question is “Is the Government of the United States more interested in protecting its own security than the security of the Peoples of these United States, Territories, and Commonwealths?”

It has come to my attention as of late that Federal, State, and municipal law enforcement officers and county sheriffs and marshals are using Homeland Security guidelines to suspend and violate the US Constitutional and State Constitutional Rights especially of the homeless. When I use the term homeless I am not referring to illegal aliens. I am referring to US citizens who were, at one time, residents in various States. The State Constitutions are provided for by the US Constitution as specified in the following quote …

Please note the phrase in the quote “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Please focus on the caveat at the end of the quote “, or to the people.” This is of extreme importance when understanding the premise for forming the United States under “The Declaration of Independence“. The Declaration of Independence begins with the first paragraph …

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.“

The formation of a new government was justified in the next paragraph …

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.“

Now “The Declaration of Independence” is not the law of the land but it has been referred to our Nation’s foundation for the Nation’s justification for existing. “The Constitution of the United States of America” is not justification for the formation of a National government but instead is a living and breathing document for the rule of law, with equality and justice, as protected and limited by the will of the people! This is explained in the following quote from “The Declaration of Independence” …

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.“

This brings us to the plight of the homeless. Since most of the homeless are US Citizens and former residents of States, Territories, and Common Wealth(s) have rights under the Constitution of the United States. The US Constitution begins with the following paragraph …

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.“

This introductory paragraph of the US Constitution states the ultimate objectives of the US Constitution Articles, Bill of Rights, and Amendments. However, recent guidelines released to Federal, State, County, and Municipal law enforcement agencies by Homeland Security have outlined particular behaviors that threaten the National Security of the United States. These Guidelines were posted …

“On January 31, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security’s Behavioral Science Division pointed to the following as indicators of potential terrorism (please note – as you review the list – that some indicators are conservative, some are liberal and some are bipartisan):

“Reverent of individual liberty”

“Anti-nuclear”

“Believe in conspiracy theories”

“A belief that one’s personal and/or national “way of life” is under attack”

“Impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

“Insert religion into the political sphere”

“Those who seek to politicize religion”

“Supported political movements for autonomy”

“Anti-abortion”

“Anti-Catholic”

“Anti-global”

“Suspicious of centralized federal authority”

“Fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

“A belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in … survivalism”

Given that most Americans fall into one or more of these categories, the powers-that-be can brand virtually anyone they dislike as being a terrorist.

A flyer from a series created by the FBI and Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting states that espousing conspiracy theories or anti-US rhetoric should be considered a potential indicator of terrorist activity. The document, part of a collection published yesterday by Public Intelligence, indicates that individuals who discuss “conspiracy theories about Westerners” or display “fury at the West for reasons ranging from personal problems to global policies of the U.S.” are to be considered as potentially engaging in terrorist activity. For an example of the kinds of conspiracy theories that are to be considered suspicious, the flyer specifically lists the belief that the “CIA arranged for 9/11 to legitimize the invasion of foreign lands.”

Law enforcement has used this as a premise for homeless people roundups for suspicion of being public nuisances; urban blight; suspicion of burglary and shoplifting; suspicion of drug abuse and dealing; alcoholism; under the influence of illegal or prescription drugs; mental disorders; squatters on public, private, and government properties; building disease ridden shanty villages; free-loading; panhandling; lewd and harassing behavior; abusing church or religious care institutions for shelter and feeding of the poor; and community undesirables.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.“

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the religious civil rights.Whereas the First Amendment secures the free exercise of religion, section one of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits discrimination, including on the basis of religion, by securing “the equal protection of the laws” for every person:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution preserves the following rights …

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.“

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution preserves the following rights …

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.“

The Eight Amendment to the United States Constitution preserves the following rights …

These civil rights should be protecting the homeless from shanty village sweeps destroying, confiscating, and dumping belongings without due process. The homeless should be protected from roundups, held in custody, and busing to relocation areas without due process. As well as, sweeps and expulsion from church services for the poor for sheltering and feeding during any religious services especially from Friday night to Saturday night and on Sundays during the Jewish and Christian Sabbaths.

Mitt Romney just won the Florida Republican Primary and low and behold Donald Trump jumps into the spotlight to endorse the Republican Candidate. Like this is a big surprise! Donald Trump has been cooling his heels on the sidelines until he was sure Mitt Romney could win a big primary. Mr. Trump thinks his endorsement will catapult Mitt Romney in future primaries while on his way to the Republican National Convention. If I were Mitt Romney I would steer clear of Donald Trump. Mr Trump is a cut-throat businessman fashioned in the mold after the Robber Barons of the latter part of the 19th Century who pillaged and exploited this country, devastated by the Civil War, to plunge it head-long into the industrial age leaving death, misery, pollution, and destroyed lives in their wake.

The Age of the Robber Barons began in the Northern States during the Civil War when immense fortunes were being amassed and the Revenue Act of 1862 was passed. After World War I by 1918 the Internal Revenue Service had become a growing and influential agency. With the Civil War unprecedented growth 0f the Munitions Industry; Steel Industry; Coal and later Petroleum Industry; Railroad Industries; Construction Industries; Manufacturing; Banking and Financial Markets, and after the turn of the century the Auto Industry; and Electrical Power Industries; were followed by the beginnings of the Aerospace Industry. After World War I big business and Federal Government neglect for regulating Banking and Financial Markets and Industrial exploitation and pollution lead to the Great Depression and Prohibition. The Depression and Prohibition lead to lawlessness and violence on an unprecedented scale. During this time the Federal Communications Commission was established

The answer to these problems was the growth of Federal Government spurred on by the advent of World WarII. The Depression, Prohibition and World War II caused the creation and/or growth of the FBI, BATF, Department of Justice, War Department (later renamed to the Department of Defense), State Department, and other Executive Branch Cabinet Agencies. After World War II the Cold War contributed to the continued growth of the DOD, Pentagon, Military, FBI, and the establishment of the CIA. The growth of Telecommunications and Aerospace Industries caused the creation of the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Transit Administration of the US Department of Transportation, as well as the National Security Agency.

With the growth of the manufacturing and carbon based energy pollution and the Nuclear Power Industry the Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission were created.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison established the Democratic Republican Party which was later renamed the Republican Party. The Republican Party was formed to keep the National Government from growing into a large Federal Government Monolith. However, Robber Barons like JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John and William Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, Charles Schwab, Leland Stanford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Donald Trump have done more to create big government than any other factions, parties, or organizations.

The conspiracy of hiding Osama bin Laden has ended! Found in Abbottabad, Pakistan surrounded by retired and vacationing Pakistani Brass and high-ranking officers Osama bin Ladin was found to be only one half of a mile from the Pakistani Army Academy which is their equivalent to the United States West Point Army War Academy. How his habitation in such a facility in such an area could have been a secret is regrettably unbelievable.

After the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan the only place Osama bin Laden could have hidden is in Pakistan even though the Pakistani Government, Military, & Intelligence swore he was not in their country. The Pakistani milked the United States for billions of dollars in military and other aid for several years knowing where Osama bin Laden could be found. It is possible that as much as 70% of the foreign aid to Pakistan was diverted and stolen by Pakistani Government and Military officials.

We still have unfinished business with Ayman al Zawahiri, (Osama’s deputy); Abu Yahya al Libi, a chief Al Qaeda ideologue; Saif al Adel, the strategic mastermind of Al Qaeda who operates from Iran; and Sa’ad bin Laden, one of Osama’s many sons. How much more blood-money must be spent and valuable US Intelligence assets must be used to track down these Al Qaeda Terrorists.

The United States is still in a conflict fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan with its own organization, infrastructure, and tribal and sect leaders which need our Intelligence community to deal with while the US Military takes the fight to them.